Chapter 47- Redemption

The fight for Spock's life was not going well, but McCoy wasn't about to give up. While the sensible part of his brain- the medical one- told him that a point would soon come when it would be useless to continue with interventions because the damage was just too great and too much time had passed since the injuries occurred, the emotional side of him- the one nobody outside of Jim had ever witnessed- stubbornly refused to quit because he was nothing if not dependable and loyal to the very end. He was not about to let Spock slip away because at the end of it all, he was incredibly valuable to the ship, and he was unique as a Human/Vulcan hybrid, and despite aggravating the hell out of him, he couldn't imagine life without the damn pointy eared bastard. Still, he could see the writing on the wall that his efforts were increasingly becoming more desperate and he began to wonder just how far he really should go…at what point would Spock himself say 'enough'? Scratch that, he thought as he barked for yet more blood substitute, he would be all logical and calculate his life's value in terms of percentages and whatnot. But McCoy was a firm believer that what was logical was not always what was right, and so he labored on.

"Need a nurse?" Peter asked quietly sidling up to the bed across from McCoy.

McCoy glanced up and saw that by the determined expression on his face, it really was a statement on his part rather than a question and as all the rest of his staff was busy with other patients flowing in from the blast, he nodded in agreement and hoped his skills weren't too antiquated. Leeching at this point seemed out of the question.

Peter seamlessly began cleaning wounds and staunching the flow of blood on his side while McCoy worked on his. Two was definitely better than one, and if having strange green blood all over his hands bothered him, the kid didn't show it in the least as he calmly plugged along as though he did it every day of his life- but he kind of did McCoy reminded himself, and this probably wasn't the worst of what he had seen back when humans shot metal fragments at one another and drove death trap vehicles. But he had reason to be placid, if he had the ability to heal and immunity from…McCoy stopped dead in his tracks with wide eyes as he looked intensely at Peter.

"Did I do something wrong?" Peter asked tentatively. He was pretty sure he was following protocol closely, but maybe there was something special he should be doing on account of Spock's alien physiology, although from what he could see it looked just like every other torso he had seen before.

"No." McCoy answered shaking himself from the instant shock he was experiencing. "Peter, I am going to be straight with you here: I'm losing him and I would never ask under other circumstances, but…" He didn't know what to make of Peter's blank expression and he knew he was asking a lot, but desperate times call for desperate measures. "You have the ability to rapidly heal. Can that in any way be transferred to Spock before he dies here on the table?"

Peter glanced down at Spock's pale face and sadly shook his head. "It doesn't work that way for me or Sylar. We can heal, but we can't give that ability to others. But…" He squinted across the room at Claire and swallowed before calling her over. She seemed only mildly disturbed at the carnage but kept her eyes focused on her uncle almost as if she knew. "Claire," he began slowly pulling her slightly aside for the conversation, "Spock is in serious trouble. He is dying and Dr. McCoy doesn't think he can save him. He needs some help…help only you can give."

"He needs my blood." She nodded looking at the terrible condition of the alien man. "Ok."

"Don't you want a minute to think about it?" Peter asked with a crooked smile.

"Nope." She sighed. "I have been just a tag along on this ship and now is my chance to do something." She hastily rolled up her sleeve and smiled. "Tap me."

"Thanks, Missy." McCoy nodded sincerely. "But exactly what is it in your blood that does the trick? I don't think I can just give him a straight transfusion- mixing pure human blood with his might be worse than doing nothing."

"Mohinder!" Peter yelled across the room. When the harried Indian man hastily came running, he continued, "We need your expertise. Remember the Shanti vaccine you developed? Well, we need you to isolate Claire's factor again. How fast do you think you can get it done?"

Mohinder swallowed hard as he took in Spock's condition. He wasn't exactly a medical doctor, but he had been in hospitals long enough to know that he didn't have long. "Perhaps an hour or so. Maybe faster if all goes well."

"Let's go!" Claire smiled as she led the way to his lab. "Tick tock goes the clock." She froze as if her words had summoned a demon from the depths of hell.

"Peter!" Sylar called as he rounded the corner of the room in search of the only other man he knew of that might be able to help. "We have to go to the engine rooms."

"Why me?" Peter asked perplexed.

"I…" Sylar paused as he searched for the right thing to say. "You just do. Now let's go."

After a quick dismissive nod from McCoy that released him from his duties, he followed while Noah and Matt looked on with extreme curiosity. "Is it your IA thingy telling you?" He asked as he jogged behind Sylar to the lifts.

"Yes." Sylar quickly answered.

"Ok." Peter shrugged in acceptance. "But I don't get why me. I'm not mechanically inclined, you're the engineer, remember?"

"I don't know!" Sylar nearly growled. It was one of those times when his IA was not providing any explanation and he had to just take it on faith that it was correct, but to tell that to Peter was to admit that his system was somewhat flawed. Peter admirably didn't push the issue and for once Sylar was glad that he was just able to be comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. Any other time it would have been annoying to a fault the way he could just blindly accept what he didn't understand, but this time it was actually helpful.

When the lift doors opened into the engine rooms, Scotty greeted them with a sour look. "Ah don't know what you're supposed to do down here, but Ah can tell ya we're fairly well screwed."

Sylar looked around the room silently, taking in the way the pipes and wires ran, where connections were made, and how all of the systems were harnessed together to drive power to…the smoking hull at the far end of the room. "Is that the main drive of the ship?" He asked walking towards it mesmerized as his IA kicked into full gear.

"Aye, that's the warp core." Scotty confirmed with just a hint of love in his voice as if it was his child.

"And without this we go nowhere." Sylar surmised.

"Aye." He sighed despondently while Peter looked from one man to the other as though he were watching a tennis match but didn't understand the rules.

"Power…" Sylar mumbled pointing abstractly at the pipes and tracing them to the warp core as his mind spun together maps and theories. "Engine…Eureka." He calmly proclaimed with a small, self-satisfied smile on his lips.

"Beg your pardon?" Scotty asked a little offended that he should find a solution within five minutes of his arrival when he was the Chief Engineer. He really was taking the red shirt a little too seriously…

"I am assuming that the core works by generating enormous amounts of thermonuclear power which provides energy to coils here…" He hummed as though he didn't need confirmation- he knew he was right. "And from there?"

"The nacelles." Scotty informed with great pride.

"Well then. As I see it- and correct me if I am wrong," he paused to smile although he knew there would be no interruptions, "The damage to the core means it can't be turned on to create the thermonuclear reaction because it could completely rupture the casing, essentially causing a meltdown on the ship."

"A breach." Scotty corrected. "Take my word, not a good affair."

Sylar conceded the term with a casual shrug. "So in order to get out of this mess, we need to bypass the core."

"Aye, but how do ya' propose we do that? Rub sticks together?!" He asked flabbergasted at the simplicity. He was starting to think he wasting his time with this mad man.

"You don't." Sylar said grimly. "We do." He motioned to himself and Peter who looked wary.

Scotty's face lit up and he jumped up and down excitedly. "Aye, 'cause ya can create it! Damn brilliant!" He commended. "But can ya create enough?"

Sylar looked at Peter with determination. "I don't know, but he alone almost took out New York and I could probably do better- but together I think we might come close."

"Whatever." Peter sighed shaking out his arms in preparation as his hands softly glowed a warm yellow. "You took out Costa Verde and then some."

"What?" Sylar asked knitting his thick eyebrows in confusion.

"Another time." Peter smiled at his own double entendre and added, "If we are going to do this, let's get busy before the Romulans have another chance to blow us up. Scotty, I think it's probably best that you evacuate the area and seal it off if you can. We are about to release some intense radiation."

"Aye, but won't you need protection suits or…" He offered. He really didn't know how this was going to work.

"It won't hurt us, now go!" Sylar commanded as his hands also began to shine with yellow light.

While Scotty ran around the area yelling for everyone to get out, Sylar placed his hands on the coils just behind the core and Peter followed suit across from him. "Why are you doing this?" He asked with a crooked smile. "Helping other people. It isn't like you to give a damn about anyone but yourself."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence." Sylar sneered.

"Don't get me wrong," Peter quickly backpedaled, "I think it's awesome that you are able to figure it all out and fix the problem to be the hero, but I thought you wanted to be the bad guy."

"I guess I am more of an anti-hero." He mumbled. "Sometimes."

"Part time good guy." Peter smiled with an appreciative nod. "I'll take that."

"Peter," His smooth voice called darkly, "I am going to ask you a question and I expect you not to lie."

Peter felt a shock run through his body because this could not be good. What could he possibly want to know at a time like this?! More importantly, he felt it necessary to warn him not to lie because the answer was probably going to be one that he should lie about even though he was terrible at it. "Ok…" He cautiously replied with an uncertain squint.

"Why didn't you leave me back on the mining planet?" He almost whispered.

Peter felt a wave of relief wash over him- at least it was an easy question for him to answer honestly. "I don't know." He shrugged. "Why did you save me from the Romulan that was going to kill us when we escaped?"

The corner of Sylar's mouth twitched into a smirk. "Why did you try to protect me from the bomb?"

Peter tiled his head and smiled at the game. "I don't know. Why did you get that guard off my back in the mine? Look, we could be at this all day. I don't know about you, but for me it just felt like the right thing to do."

Sylar nodded slowly. Of course he wouldn't think, he would feel and although he couldn't personally make sense of that mode of operating, he had to be satisfied with the answer because Peter was telling the truth.

"Right!" Scotty yelled out of breath from all the excitement. "Everyone's out. Good luck to ya'!" He saluted both men and locked them in with a hiss of the seal forming around the door.

"Ready?" Peter asked with a smile.

"Why am I doing this again?" Sylar asked rhetorically.

"Because it's the right thing to do." Peter stated emphatically. "It will come more naturally with practice."

"Right." Sylar declared doubtfully as he concentrated and both men were swallowed in a ball of fire as they gave it their best effort.

Up on the bridge, Sulu stared at his console in utter disbelief. The power meter was showing a steady rise as if the warp core were engaged, but he knew that was impossible. "Sir," he called still watching the increasing available power build, "we seem to have a malfunction in the readouts."

"How's that?" Jim asked keeping an eye on the shields from Spock's abandoned station. At least they were holding..for now.

"The stored energy is at 47% and climbing." He reported in a mystified tone. "It was at 16% just a minute ago."

"That can't be right." Uhura commented. "Even if the core was engaged, it wouldn't charge that fast."

"Hiro, Ando, I need you two to be useful for a minute." Jim stated in such an authoritarian tone the two immediately jumped up from their seats. "One of you come over here and watch this panel and tell me if it goes lower than 20." He directed pointing out the screen to Ando who took responsibility for the task. "Hiro, go down to sickbay and see if Chekov can return to duty. We will need him if those readouts are right."

"But Sir," Sulu objected, "they can't possibly be right."

"I have seen more incredible stuff in the last week than I have in my entire life." Jim replied. "And right now I am willing to believe that Sylar actually did something to help us. I don't know what, and really I don't care as long as it gets us the hell out of here."

Hiro nearly crashed into Scotty as the two fought to go in opposite directions at the lift. "Is it workin?" He asked breathlessly as he observed Ando's panel. "Oocht! Mon it is!" he howled in delight. "They're doin' it!" He pumped his fists in the air in celebration while everyone looked on in amusement.

"Who's doing what?" Sulu asked.

"Sylar an' Peter. They're powerin' the ship- together with the…" He shook his hands as though he were shooting electricity from them because in truth he didn't fully understand it himself, but at the moment all he cared about was the end result.

Jim smiled broadly at Sulu who just shook his head. "Prepare for warp."

"Aye, Sir." Sulu replied in an amused, yet defeated tone.